Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's Origin, Chapter three
Chapter three of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's Origin. Plot When morning came Rikki was very stiff, but well pleased with his doings. “Now I have Nagaina to settle with, and she will be worse than five Nags, and there’s no knowing when the eggs she spoke of will hatch, goodness! I must go and see Darzee” he said, and without waiting for breakfast, Rikki-tikki ran to the thornbush where Darzee was singing a song of triumph at the top of his voice: the news of Nag’s death was all over the village, for the sweeper had thrown the body on the rubbish-heap, "oh you stupid tuft of feathers! is this the time to sing?” Rikki demanded, "Nag is dead — is dead — is dead! the valiant Rikki-tikki caught him by the head and held fast, the big man brought the bang-stick, and Nag fell in two pieces! he will never eat my babies again" Darzee cheers musically, "all that’s true enough, but where’s Nagaina?” said Rikki-tikki looking carefully round him, though Darzee was still singing to hear him, "Nagaina came to the bathroom sluice and called for Nag, and Nag came out on the end of a stick, the sweeper picked him up on the end of a stick and threw him upon the rubbish heap, let us sing about the great, the red-eyed Rikki-tikki!" he continues, much to Rikki's annoyance, "if I could get up to your nest I’d roll your babies out!” he shouts, "you don’t know when to do the right thing at the right time, you’re safe enough in your nest there, but it’s war for me down here, stop singing a minute Darzee” he hollers, "for the great, the beautiful Rikki-tikki’s sake I will stop" Darzee sings before swooping down to meet the mongoose seriously, "what is it O Killer of the terrible Nag?” he asks, "where is Nagaina, for the third time?” Rikki repeats, "on the rubbish heap by the stables, mourning for Nag, great is Rikki-tikki with the white teeth” Darzee answered cheerfully, "bother my white teeth! have you ever heard where she keeps her eggs?” Rikki demands, "in the melon bed, on the end nearest the wall, where the sun strikes nearly all day, she hid them there weeks ago” Darzee informs, "and you never thought it worth while to tell me? the end nearest the wall, you said?” Rikki fumed, "Rikki-tikki, you are not going to eat her eggs?” Darzee wondered, "not eat exactly; no, Darzee, if you have a grain of sense you will fly off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken, and let Nagaina chase you away to this bush, I must get to the melon-bed, and if I went there now she’d see me” Rikki orders and leaves, Darzee was a feather-brained little fellow who could never hold more than one idea at a time in his head, and just because he knew that Nagaina’s children were born in eggs like his own, he didn’t think at first that it was fair to kill them, but his wife was a sensible bird, and she knew that cobra’s eggs meant young cobras later on, and even at birth a cobra was toxic, so she flew off from the nest, and left Darzee to keep the babies warm (and continue his song about the death of Nag), Darzee was very like a man in some ways, she quickly notified a coppersmith-barbet known simply as the Coppersmith, then she fluttered in front of Nagaina by the rubbish heap and cried out “oh my wing is broken! the boy in the house threw a stone at me and broke it”, then she fluttered more desperately than ever, putting on quite a convincing act, Nagaina lifted up her head and hissed “you warned Rikki-tikki when I would have killed him, indeed and truly, you’ve chosen a bad place to be lame in”, and she moved toward Darzee’s wife, slipping along over the dust, "the boy broke it with a stone!” shrieked the bird, "well! it may be some consolation to you when you’re dead to know that I shall settle accounts with the boy, my husband lies on the rubbish heap this morning, but before night the boy in the house will lie very still, what is the use of running away? I am sure to catch you, little fool, look at me!” Nagaina says, but the female bird knew better than to do that, for a bird who looks at a snake’s eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move, she fluttered on, piping sorrowfully and never leaving the ground, and Nagaina quickened her pace. Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the stables, and he raced for the end of the melon patch near the wall. There, in the warm litter above the melons, very cunningly hidden, he found twenty-five eggs, about the size of a bantam’s eggs, but with whitish skin instead of shell. "I was not a day too soon” he said, for he could see the baby cobras curled up inside the skin and he knew that the minute they were hatched they could each kill a man or a mongoose, he bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras, and turned over the litter from time to time to see whether he had missed any, but at last there were only three eggs left, and Rikki-tikki began to chuckle to himself when he heard Darzee’s wife screaming, "Rikki-tikki, I led Nagaina toward the house, and she has gone into the veranda, and...oh come quickly, she means killing!” she screeches, Rikki-tikki smashed two of the eggs and tumbled backward down the melon-bed with the final egg in his mouth and scuttled to the veranda as hard as he could put foot to the ground. The humans were there at early breakfast, but Rikki-tikki saw that they were not eating anything: they sat stone-still and their faces were white; Nagaina was coiled up on the matting by Jumeirah’s chair within easy striking distance of her bare leg, and the cobra was swaying to and fro singing a song of triumph. "Daughter of the big man that killed Nag, stay still, I am not ready yet, wait a little, keep very still all you three! if you move I strike, and if you do not move I strike, oh foolish people who killed my Nag!” she taunts, while Jumeirah's eyes were fixed on her father, and all Sanjay could do was to whisper “sit still Jumeirah, you mustn’t move, keep still”, then Rikki-tikki came up and cried “turn around Nagaina, turn and fight!”, Nagaina doesn't, but talks back anyway, "all in good time, I will settle my account with you presently, look at your friends Rikki-tikki, they are still and white: they are afraid, they dare not move, and if you come a step nearer I strike" she warns, "look at your eggs, in the melon bed near the wall, go and look Nagaina" Rikki taunts presenting the last surviving egg, and this time Nagaina did turn to face him, "ah-h! give it to me” she gasps, but Rikki-tikki put his paws one on each side of the egg, and his eyes were blood-red again, "what price for a snake’s egg? for a young cobra? for a young Indian cobra? for the last, the very last of the brood? the ants are eating all the others down by the melon bed” he taunts, and seeing that she was distracted, forgetting everything for the sake of the one egg, Rikki-tikki saw Sanjay shoot out a big hand, catch Jumeirah by the shoulder and drag her across the little table with the tea-cups, safe and out of reach of Nagaina, "tricked! tricked! tricked! Rikk-tck-tck! the girl is safe, and it was I, I, I that caught Nag by the hood last night in the bathroom: he threw me to and fro, but he could not shake me off, he was dead before the big man blew him in two, I did it! Rikki-tikki-tck-tck! come then Nagaina, come and fight with me, you shall not be a widow long" Rikki says and even began jumping up and down on all four feet with his head close to the floor, Nagaina saw that she had lost her chance of killing Jumeirah, and the egg lay between Rikki-tikki’s paws, “give me the egg, Rikki-tikki, give me the last of my eggs and I will go away and never come back” she said lowering her hood, "yes, you will go away, and you will never come back, for you will go to the rubbish heap with Nag, fight widow! the big man has gone for his gun! fight!” Rikki challenges: he wasn't gonna let Nagaina off the hook that easily, even if she was meaningful, and he was bounding all around Nagaina, keeping just out of reach of her stroke, his little eyes like hot coals, Nagaina gathered herself together and flung out at him, Rikki-tikki jumped up and backward, again and again and again she struck, and each time her head came with a whack on the matting of the veranda and she gathered herself together like a watch spring, then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind her and Nagaina spun round to keep her head to his head so that the rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind, he had forgotten the egg: it still lay on the veranda and Nagaina came nearer and nearer to it till at last, while Rikki-tikki was drawing breath, she caught it in her mouth, turned to the veranda steps and flew like an arrow down the path with Rikki-tikki behind her, when the cobra runs for her life, she goes like a whiplash flicked across a horse’s neck, Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her or all the trouble would begin again, she headed straight for the long grass by the thorn-bush and as he was running Rikki-tikki heard Darzee still singing his foolish little song of triumph, but Darzee’s wife was wiser, she flew off her nest as Nagaina came along and flapped her wings about Nagaina’s head in the hopes to slow her down, and if Darzee had helped they might have turned her but Nagaina only lowered her hood and went on, still the instant’s delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her, and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to live, his little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down with her, and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, care to follow a cobra into its hole, it was dark in the hole; and Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to turn and strike at him, he held on savagely and stuck out his feet to act as brakes on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth. Stay tuned for Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's Origin, Chapter four Gallery Category:Fanfiction